Sunday, February 13, 2011

Endurance: A Novel of Terror (2010)

When I finished Trapped I didn't waste a moment downloading Endurance and getting right to reading.  Once again, the amount of research and detail that Kilborn/Konrath puts into these books is incredible.  Endurance contains crazy explanations of inbreeding/birth defects, amputee logistics, American history, and just general backwoods craziness.

West Virginia certainly isn't going to be giving Jack any awards for this book, as it intricately details the stereotypes that the state has become known for.  Endurance is the story of a women's triathlon that takes place in rural West Virginia.  Several women arrive to find out that the room they reserved is not available, but that a little-known bed and breakfast has vacancies.

Little do they know that the B&B is populated by generations of genetically mutated men, and their psychotic mother.  Convinced that the family is a carrier of presidential genes, the matriarch, Eleanor, encourages rape and inbreeding in order to continue their bloodline and strive to create the next President.  But with presidential heritage comes problems.  All of Eleanor's kin suffer from hemophilia, and require regular blood transfusions in order to stay alive.  And since they don't desire to get transfusions the legal way, they kidnap and imprison people from their creepy-ass inn.

The vibe of this book was so creepy and the detail made me feel like I was actually there.  The ending opened it up for a sequel, and Jack wants his readers to let him know if we want one.  Dear Mr. Konrath, if you're listening, a sequel would be awesome!  Looks like "support unrated horror" is spilling into the literary world ;) 

photo source


ShiversOfHorror said...

I loved Trapped. This book was pretty good, although a little silly at times. And at the moment I too am addicted to his books. I'm currently trying to follow the timeline of events in all the books between him and Blake Crouch, so right now I'm on Thicker Than Blood...I've kinda read them out of order as I read "Serial Uncut" and "Trapped" before I even knew there were crossovers with the killers over different books... Here's a list of all the different books, characters, authors, and order they go in: Order of JA Konrath/Jack Kilborn books

If interested, here's my review of Endurance: SOH's Review of Endurance

Kat Webmistress of Shivers of Horror